Once upon a time, there were 9 American English teachers teaching in Ukraine. They thought it would be a wonderful idea to travel Europe on a Russian tour bus. So, without second thoughts, they started their journey which would turn out to be eight of the best and worst days of their lives ;)
Getting to the bus station to start our trip was an adventure. Cram all four of us, with our huge suitcases, on a metro with a bunch of Ukrainian citizens trying to get to work. Good thing we are so used to getting weird looks from these people!
Getting on the bus that day, I don't think that any of us knew what we were getting ourselves into. It was nine of us girls with about 9 other Ukrainian's. And of course, our 2 drivers and tour guide--Alexander. It started off that morning with excitement and all smiles. We were even given a round of applause for coming, because this trip would not have been possible without us. We had no idea this applause was intended for us until one of the school coordinators translated for us. That also about sums up the entire 8 day trip, all us girls having absolutely no idea what was going on while Alexander spoke Ukrainian day in and day out.
After driving for almost 24 hours, stopping at least every hour for bathroom breaks, border control, and simply so that our tour guide could yell at us to get back in the bus, we arrived in Budapest! Oh and did I mention, sleeping on that bus was awful! As Tamarah would put it, we basically melted all night. So getting to Budapest was wonderful! We walked around for awhile, getting the complete history of every square foot in Ukrainian.
We did see some beautiful things along the way. Not to mention the amazing views!
Just have no idea about what they are or the history of it all ;P
All smiles to be off of that bus!
We probably stood here for about an hour. It was pretty cold!
We really just wanted to get to those pools everyone has been talking about!
And here they are. It was strange changing into a suit when it was so freezing outside! But once we slipped into the heated pools, life was so good! Just being able to relax was so soothing. We tried the sauna as well, but most of us didn't last 2 minutes in there! It was hard to breath and way too hot.
We changed back into our clothes and went off on our own, finally! We went and explored a cool looking castle we passed along the way! This picture was taken as we were just leaving.
Just chilling in a park, waiting for our bus to take us to our hotel. These girls are the best :)
After going to the hotel, relaxing some more and getting ready, we hoped back on the bus to go take an evening boat ride along the Danube river. They served us juice instead of wine and we got to just sit and enjoy the beautiful buildings along the river! The entire boat trip, there was a woman speaking in Ukrainian again. We literally cannot catch a break...
The next morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel and climbed back on the bus to travel to Vienna. The bright side was that this trip would not be nearly as long! We still got beyond our share of the tour guides voice.
When we arrived, we explored again with the whole group. Again, we saw some beautiful buildings.
This is the city hall. Sure beats ours back home...
Even their crosswalk lights are cute!
After a lot of Russian and walking, we got some delicious food! If your wondering, yes that is an entire loaf of bread, that also has a bratwurst inside. And yes, we did eat the whole thing. It was delicious!
After doing some more exploring on our own, visiting some churches, listening to organ music, and getting ice cream, we stumbled upon this cute little park.
We sat on the grass, it finally being warm enough to do this, and played cards :) It was a great end to our day in Vienna.
Next, we were in Prague! Even though the whole Euro trip great and every country was extraordinary, I think Prague was my favorite :) We walked around the old town first and made our way to new town. This view was incredible!
We found this really strange manikin and had to pose like it.
Walking across the beautiful bridge.
Sudden urge--lookin like a fool.
The astronomical clock. It was pretty cool :)
Beautiful Gothic cathedral
We had two days in Prague, but they threw Dresden in the middle of those two days. So I will come back to talking about the fun things we did in Prague, but for now its off to Dresden, Germany!
Stay tuned for my second post about the last half of our trip!
I know you were a spring volunteer, but I'm checking out ILP blogs and I love hearing all about the adventures that other people have had/are having in their own countries. I'm currently in Russia (misstyf.wordpress.com) and it's so neat to compare and contrast experiences with other volunteers. I want to do a bus tour like this so bad! It sounds so cool.
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